


I Believe in Horizons Now

by DeathByFallenStar



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Idiots in Love, Love Confessions, M/M, Miscommunication, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:54:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21959188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeathByFallenStar/pseuds/DeathByFallenStar
Summary: Finn and Poe haven't spoken since The Party, and that's why they're both idiots.
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Finn
Comments: 2
Kudos: 249





	I Believe in Horizons Now

Finn had the apartment to himself most of the time these days. Rey was either working or out, sprinting in briefly to change from her uniform to her casual wear. She’d wave hi, kiss Chewie on the head, and–with a cartoon cloud of dust behind her–gone again.

He was, for the most part, use to the ordeal.

“What have you got planned for tonight?” Rey asked, yelling from her room as Finn sat at the kitchen table, finishing up an email on his laptop.

“Not much,” he yelled back. “You?”

“Got a concert downtown.” He could hear her stamping her foot into her boots. “Probably won’t be home till late.”

Finn clicked out of his email, tapping his fingers as he decided whether to inquire about her statement further or not.

Chewie, Rey’s giant mutt of a dog with a wild coat of brown fur that had started to gray around the muzzle, barked in his reply.

“I know, I know,” Rey replied, coming out of her room. She went over to the couch to give Chewie some much-needed scratches behind his ear as she held her backpack in her hand. “I promise, I’ll hang out tomorrow bud. We’ll go on a long walk, I promise.”

Chewie, easier to appease than Finn, decided that was enough and lowered his head back onto the cushion.

Finn closed his laptop and leaned back in his chair as Rey sat down on the coffee table to tie her boots. She was wearing her raggedy jeans and a large Nirvana shirt that she had tucked into the front of her pants. Finn was pretty sure he hadn’t seen that shirt before.

He bit the bullet. “Not taking your camera?”

Rey paused, briefly, before going back to tie a sturdy knot into her boots. “No, shouldn’t need the clunker. Just kind of scouting for upcoming events, you know. Getting a scoop for future stories.” She untied the knot and tied it again. “You know, gotta find my own stories. Music blogs don’t just fall out of the sky.” She went to the other shoe to tie it, tight like a ship knot. “Plus, it’s music. Doesn’t always need photos.” She stopped and tugged on the knot, testing it.

“Uh-huh,” Finn said.

Rey finally stopped tying her shoelaces and stood up. She pushed her short brown hair behind her ears, pulling at her shirt to make sure the tuck was good. She looked absolutely tiny in the massive shirt.

“Rey–”

“Gotta go! Love you, have a fun evening!” She grabbed her backpack and he heard her rush to the front door. He listened to her grab her keys, her jacket, her helmet, and the door open.

He was not ready to hear her say, “Oh, Poe!”

Finn’s body froze, and then screamed at him to hide under the table.

“Hey, Rey,” he heard from the doorway, which was thankfully hidden by the hallway. “Heading out?”

“Yup! Concert. What’s up?”

“Is Finn home?”

Finn wondered if he could wedge himself in the closet with the washer and dryer, maybe his thundering heart could be mistaken for the machines running.

“He is! Head on in, have fun, see you!” He could hear Rey shuffle past Poe and close the door, and he could have killed her for not being home enough for him to tell her about what had happened.

Maybe he could fit in the fridge.

He tried to listen for Poe’s footsteps, for the thud of his boots on the hardwood, and he couldn’t tell if his heart was just beating too loud for him to hear it.

It took a moment, but it finally came, that gentle sound of steps, and Poe’s voice whisper, “Hey, Chew,” before he walked out of the hallway, in view of Finn, sitting dumbly in front of his closed laptop. “Hey,” he said, just as quiet.

Poe was, to Finn’s regular amazement, always stunning. He wore himself well, an effortlessness aura that Finn knew was untrue from the number of hair care products he kept in his bathroom. He was handsome, a single star in a dark night. In his apartment, wearing a black leather jacket and brown pants combo that would only ever look good on him. 

“Uh,” Finn said, pausing to blink and reconfigure his brain. “Hey, sorry.” He hurried to stand up and take off his glasses, the horrid things he only needed when he worked and always made him feel self-conscious about his face shape. “Hey, man, what’s up?” He went around the table to greet his long-term friend, but hesitated, trying to remember how they did this before. Did they hug? He thinks they would have hugged.

That would be weird now though, he thinks.

And so they both stood there, very suddenly frozen as they looked at each other. Poe’s hands were in his pockets and they didn’t move, and Finn found himself wrapping his arms around his middle, holding himself tight as the tension thickened.

He hated this.

“What’s up?” he said again. “I didn’t know you were coming over.” He meant for it to sound like a question, but it ended too abruptly and came as more of an accusation he hadn’t intended.

Poe winced, looking away from Finn to Chewie on the couch, then down at the floor. “Yeah, I, uh.” He stopped. Finn counted the number of times Poe blinked before he spoke again. Seven. Quick, but seven. “I kind of just decided to, you know, wanted to… check-in.” Poe finally looked up, his brown eyes locking onto Finn’s.

Finn felt his heart leap into his throat. Sweat collected on his palms like rain on a window, and he desperately wanted to restart to five days ago, when everything was mostly normal and he felt less like an idiot around Poe Dameron.

“Okay,” he said, his tone even for the two syllables. “Do you want something to drink?” He turned around without waiting for an answer, releasing his hands to open the fridge and search around for something to hold onto.

The fridge was full, mostly thanks to Rey barely being home. They both came from poorer backgrounds, and while Finn tended to hoard his food, Rey was ravenous with it all. He was startled to see how much was still left from his grocery run this week.

He heard Poe shift behind him. “Finn–”

“I’ve got root beer, water, Pepsi, orange juice,” he planned to list everything that could be drunk, including the condiments if he needed too, “soy milk, almond milk, I can make coffee–”

“Finn.” He heard Poe closer behind him, and very suddenly he could sense him too. He could feel the tension crowd around him, and dread washed over him. “Please,” Poe said, quiet and begging, a plea to just deal with this. Deal with what happened four days ago.

Finn sighed and closed the refrigerator door.

“I’m sorry,” he said, turning to look at Poe, who was maybe a foot away from him now.

“It’s okay,” Poe said, still quiet. Finn had never heard Poe so quiet for so long. “I should have said I was coming.”

Finn shook his head. “No, no,” he said, solid with his words, “You’re always welcome here. Always.”

Poe’s shoulder’s slouched, just a bit, just a small relief in the tension, and he smiled enough to make Finn forget how much he didn’t want to have this conversation.

He opened his mouth to speak, but Poe beat him to it.

“I’m sorry, okay?” were not the words Finn was expecting. “I know I made the party… weird. I’m sorry. I misread… a lot, and I should have been– I don’t know. Smarter, I guess. But that doesn’t matter.” Poe paused, just long enough for Finn to make sure he was completely confused by what he was hearing, before he finally said, “I want you to know I’m not gonna be weird about you and Rose, okay? I promise. I’m happy for you two.”

Finn was, for the most part, completely lost. “What?”

Poe looked pained as he grabbed the back of his neck and looked down at the ground. “I know I– I came on pretty strong at the party. I saw you and Rose kiss at the festival this summer, but then you guys never talked about it, and so I was hoping maybe it was a one-time thing– but then at the party– you know, it’s–”

“Wait, wait. Poe,” Finn said, slow while his brain was full of TV static, “you think Rose and I are… dating?”

Poe now turned the confused look onto Finn. “Uh, I guess? I mean– you are, aren’t you?”

Finn’s nerves had melted almost completely away, too stunned at what Poe was saying. “No,” he said.

There was a pause, a beat, before Poe broke, hands going up to the ceiling and eyes wide, “What?!”

Finn raised his hands up, offering only confusion on his palms. “Why would you think we’re dating?”

“Because– because–” Poe slapped his hands down in front of his face, letting out a silent scream before saying, “Oh my god, Zorii’s right I’m a fucking idiot.”

Zorii’s name woke up Finn’s own brain as to why he was so nervous, and he pointed a finger at Poe. “Wait, wait, aren’t you dating Zorii?”

Poe dropped his hands, a large smile filling his face as he breathlessly laughed, eyes wild as he stared at Finn. “What?”

“I–I saw you two at the party! After we–” Finn stopped, feeling his cheeks heat up at the memory, attempting to skip over it to hit the current point, “You were asking her if you could kiss her ‘like old times’ and–”

“Finn, buddy,” Poe said between laughs, stepping closer and putting a hand on his chest, “I am gay. Like, full, 100% gay. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. I do not like girls.”

Finn was pretty sure his brain had completely short-circuited. “But– but you two–”

“Dated, sure,” there was another laugh, “in high school. We were each other’s beards. She was secretly dating some softball player and didn’t want her parents to find out. I was just in the closet. Oh my god,” he laughed again, leaning his hand on the kitchen table and wildly staring at the ground. “I’m such an idiot.”

He watched Poe, alarm bells still ringing in his ears as he tried to piece the new information together. Ever since Poe had reconnected with Zorii, Finn had been suspicious. They talked about old times, flirted… and then at the party, when Finn went to go find him to talk, he was practically pulling her into his lap, saying “kiss me” as she giggled.

Finn had been pretty fucking sure.

“Wait,” Poe said, looking back at Finn, “So you and Rose?”

It was Finn’s turn to laugh. “No, not at all.”

“But the festival–”

“That was all her.” He could feel his heart rate picking up, beating more hopefully in his chest. “She was just– Rose is a great girl, and I do like her as a friend, but the kiss was just. You know, her sister had just died and I think she was just– but no. No, that was a one-time thing. We both agreed.”

Poe was staring at him again, this careful look on his face, like he was waiting for the other shoe to drop. “And the party?”

“She got an email for this job at NASA, she wanted to tell me first, she was so excited. That’s what that was.” Finn wanted to scream at the both of them– what idiots they were. “I’m not dating Rose.”

In a second, Poe’s face lit up in a smile. “I’m not dating Zorii,” he replied.

Finn felt his chest expand in a way it hadn’t in four days, since he and Poe stood on the balcony at a party neither of them was terribly invested in. He had inched closer, or maybe Poe had. They had gravitated towards each other like always, like since the beginning, and Finn had thought maybe Poe was talking about something more than cars and motorcycles when he said, “Caring that much about anything sometimes means being scared of it.” Finn had counted Poe’s blinks then too. Only three, and he had been so close he could have counted his eyelashes if he took the time. Only three blinks though before someone came out on the balcony and tried to bum a lighter off them, pulling them apart until Rose came looking for Finn and pulling him further away.

“So then, at the party–”

“I like you, Finn,” Poe said, confident and loud as he stood up fully, smiling wide, confidence radiating off him in a way that’s always amazed Finn. Every part of Poe has always amazed Finn, and he almost couldn’t believe what he heard. “I like you, a lot. A lot, a lot.” Poe took a step forward, reaching out and grabbing Finn’s hand. “I’m an idiot for not telling you sooner, and I’m a bigger idiot for going four extra days without telling you so.” He took his other hand and grabbed the side of Finn’s face, his hand warm and a little sweaty. “The party– with you, just you– that was real.”

Finn could feel his heart turn into fireworks.

He didn’t take the time to count Poe’s blinks. Instead, he wrapped his arms around his neck and pulled him in before he could think it through, and kissed Poe Dameron like he had always wanted to.

**Author's Note:**

> My favourite part of TROS was when Poe asked Finn to marry him and be his other general.


End file.
